Lamar - 1940's - Houston Time Portal

Main at Lamar

20 20 July 1944: The “Theater District” now signifies the area around Alley Theater, Jones Hall, and the Wortham, but decades ago it referred to the 1000 block of Main Street where three great cinemas enlivened Houston's nightscape: The Metropolitan, Loew’s State, and the Majestic. 1. 1000 Main: Lamar Hotel with interior Metropolitan Theatre, 16 floors, 1926 (imploded 4/14/1985); 1014 Main: Loew's State Cinema; 2. 1000-1022 Main: National Standard Building, Houston home of National Standard Life Insurance Company and offices for real estate agents, oil companies, the Houston Teachers Association, and one architect (Joseph Finger), 8 floors, 1927, (demolished April 14, 1985); 3. 914 Main: Commerce Tower housing Levy Brothers dry goods store on floors 1-5, the local offices of the Chamber of Commerce, consulates for Argentina, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Chile, offices of the Houston Fat Stock Show and Live Stock Exhibition which hosted the Houston Rodeo, and on the 9th floor, the exclusive Houston Club , 24 floors, 1929;  4. 911 Walker: San Jacinto Hotel, 12 floors, opened in 1909 as The Bender Hotel (demolition March 2004); 5. 806 Main: Second National Bank (Carter Building), 23 floors, 1910, for many years covered with vertical white cladding from the 1960's until renovation into JW Mariott Hotel Houston 2012-14 was completed simulating the old facade); 6. 712 Main: The Gulf Building, 36 floors, 1929; 7. 909 Texas: Rice Hotel, 17 floors (an 18th added in 1951), 1913; 8. 911-915 Main: The Kirby Lumber Company building with Kirby Theatre, 11 floors;  9. a. 917-21 Main: The Fashion, women's clothes / 919 1/2 Main: Masonic Temple, Holland Lodge; b. 1001 Main: Brooks System Sandwich Shop / Michael Jewelry / 1003: Chenille Shop, linens / 1005 "Furs" Ralph Rupley Furs / Beauty Shop (4th); c. 1007-1009 Main: "Ship Ahoy" Seafood Restaurant; d. 1011 Main: Guaranty Federal Saving & Loan; e. 1013 Main: Falles Linen Shop; f. 1015 Main: D F Peyton Co., women's clothes; g. 1017 Main: The Sportswear Shop; 10. 1019-21 Main: Walgreen Drug.  

12 November 2010: In the interval since this photograph was taken, two very large skyscrapers have risen above downtown that have changed this view: toward horizon the vanishing point behind 6 - Hines North Tower at 609 Main, 48 floors, 2017 / and in front of 7 – BG Group Place at 811 Main, 46 floors, 2011. 1. 1000 Main: Garage for Reliant Energy Plaza; 2. 1000 Main: Reliant Energy Plaza (replaces Lamar Hotel) with trading floor 10th / 11th floor between garage and office tower, 36 floors, 2003; 3. 930 Main: Parking for 1000 Main [replaced F W Woolworth, 930 Main, 3 floors, 1949-1999], 12 floors, 2002; 4. 914 Main: Commerce Tower, 24 floors, 1929 (converted into condominiums in 2003); 5. 712 Main: Gulf Building, 36 floors, 1929; 6. 1001 Texas: Binz Building, 13 floors, 1982; 7. 713 Main: AC Hotel (Rusk Building, Mason Block, Houston Bar Center Building), 10 floors, 1917, renovated 2018-2019); 8. 917 Main: Kirby Building (Palais Royal), 11 floors, 1926, renov 2004; 9. 1001 McKinney: City National Bank building, 22 floors, 1947-9 (1st large downtown building after WWII); 10. 1021 Main: One City Centre Main Garage (initial design was as a glassed-in Banking Pavilion); 11. 1021 Main: One City Centre (First National Bank), 32 floors, 1961.

Postmarked: July 20,1944; Houston, Texas 1
Stamp: 3c Blue Win the War #908

To: Master Bowie Smyth
808 W: Nueces
Victoria Texas

Message: Dear Bowie
How are you fine I hope. I haven't seen or heard from you in so long so I thought I would Drop you & Bubba a line. I bet anything. I can whip you & Bubba in Bowling well write me as soon as you can - your friend (I hope
Da Kow

Bowie Smyth was a little over 15 when he received this postcard from a buddy nicknamed “Da Kow.” Bowie was born George Howard Smyth on 29 April 1929 in Victoria , Texas, the son of William O’Brien Smyth, a railroad train dispatcher and telegrapher, and Norma Emelia Leuschner, an immigrant from Germany. Bowie had two older brothers, William O’Brien Smyth, Jr., 8 years older and Frederick Charles Smyth, 4 years older. By the time of this postcard Bowie’s older brother William O. was in the Air Corps and his other brother Frederick abandoned his studies at the University of Texas and was also in the Air Corps. In a heavy bombing raid over Germany five months later on 17 December 1944, Frederick’s plane was shot down and he was taken as POW to Stalag 2A in Brandenburg, to be repatriated after the war.
Bowie's family had deep roots in Victoria. His grandfather, Charles Smyth was born in Gavern, Ireland in 1838, immigrating to the US in 1861; his grandmother, Ursula Willemin, daughter of August and Magdeline Barache Willemin, was born in Ileville near Paris, France in 1849 and immigrated as an infant with her parents. Charles and Ursula were married in Victoria in 1880, when Charles worked as a railroad overseer and Ursula kept as many as 6 boarders with the assistance of a black servant. In addition to William O’Brien Smyth, Bowie’s father, born in 1890, they had three daughters: Janie (1883), Magdaline (1888), and Anastasia (1892), none of whom married.
Bowie and his brother William O., Jr. followed their brother Frederick to the University of Texas at Austin In 1949. They did not seem to have obtained degrees, but stayed in Austin for a couple of years, Bowie worked in the State of Texas General Land Office until 1953, and William joined the Air Force to serve in Korea. Bowie returned to Victoria to run in an unsuccessful bid for the state representative in 1954, but was unsuccessful. By 1960 Frederick was working as the district geologist for Sun Oil, and Bowie joined him there to work as an analyst for Shell Oil. Bowie married Betty Callaway and eventually moved to Houston.
George Howard “Bowie” Smyth died in 2011, two years after Betty passed away; they are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Houston. The Catholic Cemetery in Victoria holds the remains of most of the Victoria Smyth family members: Charles (1838-1918), Ursula “Auslie” or “Arslie” (1849-1929), Janie (1883-1961), Lanie (1888-1936), Anastasia (1892-1969), William O. Smyth, Sr. (1890-1952), and Norma L. Smyth (1893-1945). Second Lieutenant William O’Brien Smyth, Jr. (1921-2005) is buried in Pflugerville, Travis County, TX near Austin where he lived much of his life, and 2nd Lieutenant Frederick Charles Smyth (1925-2017) and his wife Margaret Mary (1926-2003) are buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery, El Paso, TX.

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